During second-quarter conference calls, chief executives at major mall REITs addressed the upcoming Lord & Taylor closures. In all, May Co. will close 32 stores in Class-A malls. Eleven of the stores to be closed are located in Simon malls, four are in General Growth malls, four are in Taubman malls and three are in Rouse Co. malls. Here's how three owners are reacting:
Tony Deering, CEO, The Rouse Co.
“We've been in conversations with them for the past two months about what their intentions are in Las Vegas. They already have a very successful Robinsons-May store. We'd be happy to take back that space and convert it to specialty retail. But if we do, it will be a complicated process for the other department stores.”
Rick Sokolov, president and COO, Simon Property Group
“They tried to take a brand that had its foundations primarily in the Northeast to further flung markets and it was not successful. The ultimate evidence of that will be the number of other retailers that want to occupy these boxes.”
Robert Taubman, CEO, Taubman Centers
“These are very new stores. So those operating agreements are in full force today. Typically the stores own their own buildings and the land, and in this case they own Wellington Green and Willow Bend. They lease at International Plaza and Cherry Creek, but effectively even at the leasing, they own those stores as well. There are only two tenants in all four centers in total that have kick-out clauses.”
